CAIRO: Egypt achieved a primary surplus of 1.46 percent of its gross domestic product in its 2020-2021 budget, according to the Finance Minister Mohamed Maait. The surplus has been used to finance part of the interests of the public debt, which contributed to reducing the total deficit to 7.4 percent of GDP. This indicates the Egyptian economy’s success in dealing with internal and external challenges, absorbing global shocks and containing the repercussions of the pandemic, Maait explained. He pointed out that the volume of public spending on social programs increased as well, which led to an increase in the total expenditures of the last fiscal year by 10 percent to record 1.6 trillion Egyptian pounds ($86 billion).